The Best Sci-Fi Characters of All Time: the verdict

Ever since he stole a blue box and ran away, he’s been in the nation’s living rooms – even when fighting monsters on far-flung planets. And now the man known only as ‘the Doctor’ has won our showdown and is named the greatest sci-fi character of all time.

Since August, you’ve been voting in your thousands. In terms of overall votes the Timelord triumphed, but when it came down to a battle of the sexes – madman in a box versus Ellen Ripley’s tortured lone warrior – it was very, very close. But for all her bravery, the Nostromo’s warrant-officer-turned-warrior could not beat Gallifrey’s greatest hero, who pipped her to the post by just 110 votes. Ripley emerges, however, as your favourite character from sci-fi cinema by some margin.

Alien (1979)

You were overwhelmingly fonder of characters from television than cinema, with characters originating on the small screen taking 61% of the vote. This may tie in with the date statistics, which are heavily weighted in favour of a halcyon period: 22% of votes went for characters from the 1980s, 28% from the 1990s and 20% from the 2000s. This means our most popular decade was when our winner, the Doctor, was not on air, save for a divisive TV movie in 1996.

Sci-Fi still looks like having some way to go when it comes to gender equality. 60% of votes were for male characters, with 33% for female, non-specific entities chalking up 6% and one character qualifying as both – following Michelle Gomez’ casting as the Master/Missy in this year’s series of Doctor Who.

Humanity as whole came out well though, with 67% of you polling for your own species. Aliens took 19%, while robots and computers trailed behind at 14%. Some 82% of the vote went to characters that can broadly be described as heroes, with just 15% for villains and 3% for characters in that ambiguous grey area. Anti-heroes certainly played their part: that most iconic of villains, Darth Vader, makes an impressive stab for domination at number three, closely followed by Avon from Blake’s 7 at four, and Captain Malcolm Reynolds from Firefly one place behind.

Star Wars (1977)

The top 100

The Doctor, Doctor Who

Ellen Ripley, Alien saga

Darth Vader, Star Wars saga

Kerr Avon, Blake’s 7

Captain Malcolm Reynolds, Firefly / Serenity

G’Kar, Babylon 5

HAL-9000, 2001: A Space Odyssey

Rick Deckard, Blade Runner

Han Solo, Star Wars saga

Spock, Star Trek saga

John Crichton, Farscape

Roy Batty, Blade Runner

Captain Jack Harkness, Torchwood

Captain James T Kirk, Star Trek saga

Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation

Londo Mollari, Babylon 5

The Alien, Alien

Dana Scully, The X Files

Ianto Jones, Torchwood

Yoda, Star Wars saga

Aeryn Sun, Farscape

Kara ‘Starbuck’ Thrace, Battlestar Galactica

Sarah Connor, The Terminator saga

Doctor Emmet Brown, Back to the Future trilogy

Fox Mulder, The X Files

Professor Bernard Quatermass, Quatermass and the Pit

The Terminator, The Terminator saga

Susan Ivanova, Babylon 5

Captain John Sheridan, Babylon 5

Delenn, Babylon 5

Jack O’Neill, Stargate SG-1

Daleks, Doctor Who

Data, Star Trek: The Next Generation

Luke Skywalker, Star Wars saga

Gort / Klaatu, The Day the Earth Stood Still

Maria the Robot, Metropolis

Judge Dredd, Judge Dredd

E.T., E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

Ben ‘Obi-Wan’ Kenobi, Star Wars saga

Neo, The Matrix trilogy

Robbie the Robot, Forbidden Planet

Marvin the Paranoid Android, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Marty McFly, Back to the Future trilogy

Rose Tyler, Doctor Who

Samantha Carter, Stargate SG-1

Donna Noble, Doctor Who

Walter Bishop, Fringe

Admiral William Adama, Battlestar Galactica

River Tam, Firefly / Serenity

Arthur Dent, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Wall-E, Wall-E

R2-D2, Star Wars

Boba Fett, Star Wars

Arnold J Rimmer, Red Dwarf

Sam Bell, Moon

Leeloo, The Fifth Element

Roj Blake, Blake’s 7

Elim Garak, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Scorpius, Farscape

Thomas Jerome Newton, The Man Who Fell to Earth

Captain Kathryn Janeway, Star Trek Voyager

Gaius Baltar, Battlestar Galactica

Chiana, Farscape

Kaylee, Firefly / Serenity

Sarah-Jane Smith, Doctor Who

David, Prometheus

Q, Star Trek saga

Dave Lister, Red Dwarf

Amy Pond, Doctor Who

Flash Gordon, Flash Gordon

Princess Leia Organa, Star Wars saga

RoboCop, RoboCop

River Song / Melody Pond, Doctor Who

Snake Plissken, Escape from New York

Alfred Bester, Babylon 5

Barbarella, Barbarella

John Sheppard, Stargate Atlantis

Seven of Nine, Star Trek: Voyager

Daniel Jackson, Stargate SG-1

R.J. MacReady, The Thing

Dave Bowman, 2001: A Space Odyssey

Commander Jeffrey Sinclair, Babylon 5

Lyta Alexander, Babylon 5

Tetsuo Shima, Akira

The Predator, Predator

Benjamin Sisko, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Gwen Cooper, Torchwood

Kryten, Red Dwarf

Servalan, Blake’s 7

The Master, Doctor Who

Vala Mal Doran, Stargate SG-1

Bo Dennis, Lost Girl

Michael Garibaldi, Babylon 5

Number Six, Battlestar Galactica

Hoban ‘Wash’ Washburn, Firefly / Serenity

C3PO, Star Wars

Riddick, The Chronicles of Riddick

Motoko Kusanagi, Ghost in the Shell

Laura Roslin, Battlestar Galactica

Doctor Ellie Arroway, Contact

Please note: this page was updated on 19 December to reflect the fact Ambassador Delenn at 73 and Delenn at 35 were the same character. As a result she has moved to position 30, allowing for a new entry at number 100.